The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

nuatha

FairyPrincessk wrote: »

I'm sure you're right Nursemaggie, but as I've never done it before I want to stick to official recipes until I'm a bit more experienced.

I suspect you are using American recipes? Bottled lemon juice has a guaranteed level of acidity, hence the use of it in preserving.
I know the FDA have done a huge amount of work on preserving and publish very good guidlines - when your culture includes bottling/canning meat dishes then getting it wrong isn't just an upset tummy.
Certainly for jams, curds and the like I'd look at older English recipes and cookbooks, we don't have a culture of either pressure or waterbath canning in the UK, so UK recipes are generally designed to work without.

Having said that, if you are interested in American canning techniques, you may find Marisa McClellan's Small Batch Canning Blog of interest. In particular her 101 posts are useful, and her explanations of the whys and wherefores are excellent.

elona

Jazee

I am so sorry but I felt myself smiling at the quirkieness.

Got DH settled into bed ( new foam on top of deep mattress makes it look like "the princess and the pea" as it is so high) and his first comment was "we should have done this ten years ago!" Bit miffed as our existing mattress was well researched and has memory foam and pocket springs four years ago but if he feels the difference straight away then that is a bonus. Just hope it makes a difference for him.

My knees are still wobbly from dragging the weight but if it gives him more comfort it is worth it.

Softstuff

I hope your OH loves his mattress Elona. Any little benefit you can find for him is a good thing. It is quite an achievement moving that mattress alone. If you do manage to clone yourself you can send a copy here and you can get a well earned holiday.

Thanks all for the comments re FIL. I'm frankly gobsmacked you can go weeks with a broken bone over here, though I guess I shouldn't be. When I went to see about the tumour in my leg, the first thing they recommended was private health insurance! We've had it ever since and have used it a fair bit. I think there's a lot of "essentials" we'd cut out before we cut that.

Fairyprincess, great minds must think alike! It's lime season here so I'm thinking of curd. Though it doesn't last anywhere near long enough in this house to think of preserving it!

FairyPrincessk

Morning all,

Nuatha thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely check out the blog. Yes, I am using primarily American recipes. Although they haven't done it in years the women in my family all used to can. They gave me a couple of books for Christmas but my fear of botulism is truly ingrained. My plan was to start with some easy stuff this summer--jam or things with naturally high acidity and then gradually progress so that by the time we have a bigger garden (still several years off) I can preserve some things without the freezer. I'm not planning to do meat, although I might consider stock in the far off future. I find with many things that once I know how to do it there is a point at which I decide it isn't worth it. My hunch is that I'll find jams, tomatoes and pickles worth the time and effort but that the pressure canning stuff might not be the best use of my time and resources.


Softstuff I'm gobsmacked with you. I hope you manage to get results soon. Yum.. limes. I'd be thinking a nice [STRIKE]key[/STRIKE]lime pie.

Elona, we currently have a memory foam mattress and when we got it I cut up the memory foam topper to use for cushions etc. I do think our topper was more effective (although it had seen better days so it would need replacing anyway). I'm glad you've managed to make your DH more comfortable.

Bit of work for me this morning, and then I think my afternoon project is to tackle the cupboard under the stairs. It currently has some things stored in it which we really should be able to part with. I would dearly like to be able to get the vac and the ironing board in there, not to mention the spare cat litter and cat carrier, but I will manage my expectations.

candlelight_2013

ELONA I hope DH had a comfortable night, and he is recovering from his fall. You must be strong to be able to get the memory foam mattress upstairs, no lasting damage I hope, just wobbly legs.

POPS I hope you are OK and hope that you might be feeling a little better, thinking of you

Candlelightx

ivyleaf

Good morning fencers

I was up earlier than usual for me this morning. I woke up, glanced at my watch, saw it was 7.45 and thought "Better get up and feed the cat!" I was already dressed by the time I looked at my watch again and realised it had actually been 6.45 Though I know 6.45 is rather late to get up for a lot of you.

The cat has gone out the front so he can say hello to the children as they go past on their way to school :rotfl: He really loves children!

monnagran

Brilliant washing weather here. Yesterday I got all the towels washed, on the line and dried in no time at all. Today the first lot of bedding is in the machine and the second lot waiting in the queue. I love it. Not so keen on the pile of ironing that all this industry produces. Yes, I do iron. I know a lot of people tut-tut about ironing and have nothing to do with it, but being old fashioned I love to put on freshly ironed clothes and slip into ironed bedding. I even iron teatowels (sh!)
I'm stopping now before my computer freezes again.

x

grandma247

FairyPrincessk pressure canned beans are so useful to me and I can them without salt, sugar or anything I can't read. I buy large bags when they are on offer. I soak what I need to fill enough jars then rinse and cover them in water and can them for 75 mins 1pt or 90 mins 2pt jars.
They are shelf stable for a long time and they are not taking up room in my freezer. I also make meals for when we are away self catering or when I am not well. Pork meatballs in spicy sauce are a favourite here.

Canning is safe if you follow the rules to the letter.

nursemaggie

Softstuff it appalls me the way your FIL is being treated. We moan about the NHS but When it comes to an emergency anything serious just pushes everyone else aside until your dealt with. I had about 5 doctors and a medical student. with me for about 5 hours when I collapsed.

I got up in the morning headed for the bathroom as you do and never got there. I passed out on the landing and fell down the four stairs to the turn in our staircase. I landed with my legs up the four stair so my body put itself in the perfect position. I was bleeding internally it turned out.

It actually took me longer to shout DS awake to get help than to get medical help. The ambulance was there within a few minutes. They rushed me to the hospital on the siren. It normally takes half an hour in a car to get to the nearest A&E from where we used to live. We were there in ten minutes.

I could not have paid for better treatment. I had a CT scan in A&E. They had a theatre in A&E and they gave me one there and then because my only symptom was passing out. When I suddenly got a pain in my left shoulder they said that was a sign of internal bleeding and they had me in theatre within seconds. I woke up in the special care unit with one to one nursing for the first 48 hours if my nurse went for a meal or to the bathroom someone replaced her. I was on a ventilator. Once off the ventilator I was left for the odd few minutes I was in there 4 days. Apparently one to one nursing for that long is rare. I then went to a ward on the 5th day. I had tubes coming out of me everywhere.

The only thing I would have had extra would have been a side ward and I felt safer where I could be seen from the nurses station. I thought you had a National Health Service.

The main reason that we have problems getting a GP appointment is what the government have know for nearly 70 years. About 10 years ago Thousands of GPs started to retire at the same time as a peak in the older population. The post war bulge is retiring. It is going to continue to effect the NHS for at least another 20 years but they are just not prepared to spend the money in training more GPs or providing more elderly care. It is effecting every part of the NHS.

The most experienced staff are retiring and the population is aging at the same time. It will be another twenty years before the rise in the birth rate provides the extra people needed we have to import Doctors. They have to be from developing nations because the rest of the West has falling birth rates.

We have to be prepared to pay more for it. We have to learn to treat our own minor ailments, and there will have to be an increase in tax specifically to pay for the NHS.

FairyPrincessk

Thanks Grandma. I don't know anyone offline who cans, so it is nice to know others still do. Beans were one of the things I might consider for pressure canning, but probably not for a year or two yet. I find the no additives part a compelling argument for spending the time as at the moment we do rely on a fair amount of tinned pulses. I realize we could cook from dry and freeze but we don't have much freezer space and aren't in a position to buy one right now.